Passions De L'Ame - Divina - Import CD

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Passions De L'Ame

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New recording by "Les Pasiones de l'Ame" featuring the beautiful ensemble music of Biber and Schmelzer, two of the most important Baroque composers of the heyday. The fourth album by the Bern-based period ensemble Les Pasion de l'Ame features works by Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (c. 1623-1680) and Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber ( 1644-1704), whose works are included in this collection. The Habsburgs' ambition to demonstrate their prestige through music after the Thirty Years' War prompted the emergence of many talented composers, including Schmelzer and Biber. They had outstanding compositional skills in counterpoint and composed sonatas with sophisticated writing for Leopold I, who favored the style of "imitative counterpoint," in which one voice imitates the main ideas of another. Schmelzer was violinist at the court chapel in Vienna from 1649-70, becoming assistant conductor in 1671 and chief conductor in 1679. He was the first German to hold the position of chief musician at the court in Vienna, a position previously reserved for Italians.He revolutionized the repertoire, especially in string works, and was a major influence on the development of German music in southern Austria. He was also Biber's teacher. Biber is said to have been an early adopter of the Roma (gypsy) violin playing style, and he succeeded in overturning the predominant Italian style of violin music of the time, thereby cementing his reputation as one of the best violinists of his time. He also showed his versatility not only in his compositional techniques, which were fundamentally different from Italian music, such as the use of special tunings, polyphonic techniques, and frequent use of arpeggios, but also in the style of his compositions, which are playful and include irony and other elements. Schmelzer wrote church sonatas in the old polyphonic style, while Biber's works are full of narrative and elaborate scenography. In Biber, the works are innovative and free in their imagination, with technical and sharp passages in a familiar style with many dances, and a variety of virtuosity is demonstrated in the music, including the title elements and percussion effects attached to each piece.Les Pasiones de l'Ame is an ensemble formed in Bern by European players with advanced period instrumental skills and historical knowledge after four years of careful preparation. The name of the orchestra is taken from the work "The Theory of Passions" written by the philosopher René Descartes in 1649. The leader is Merette Lüthi, a Bern-born baroque violinist who is highly acclaimed for her performances at various European festivals of classical music. Members of the group include members of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, professors of the Antwerp Conservatory, and professors of the Bern University of the Arts. The title of this new recording is "Divina (Sacred)," and the music was selected based on the concept that "music is the link between this world and the next. Their previous albums have included music from Bieber's "Technical and Delightful Ensembles," and this new recording is the complete set. Sony Music